a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Pre-Break Odds and Ends

Boozer:The Cowhide Globe reports that “in the midst of a heated battle with the Lakers, Boozer hopped in his SUV at halftime and headed for home” to watch Grey’s Anatomy, and adds, “This speaks volumes to Boozer’s committment to the team. It speaks volumes to his emotional investment in his teammates. It speaks volumes to his love of the game.”

I wasn’t sure whether they really did have reliable sources or they are just disgruntled with Boozer like me, but I did a little digging and it just may be true. While it doesn’t prove anything, jazzcrap‘s game photos show Boozer on the bench in the 1st and 2nd quarters, but he is nowhere to be seen in the 3rd or 4th.

Fess:
When asked what he was going to do during All-Star break, Fess, who apparently asked a visiting Hollinger to “do a separated-at-birth feature on SL Tribune beat writer Ross Siler and former Laker Coby Karl,” said, “Probably I’m going to go to The Gateway“–in stark contrast to his teammates who are going to Mexico or back to their hometowns. Gotta love the kid.

AK:
I often think to myself that AK looks exactly the same as he did when he first arrived in Utah. Turns out that my memory is faulty or he arrived in Utah before the Internet was so developed and I didn’t see him that much in his first few seasons (as I had already left the States by then). sltrib published some pictures of baby AK the year before his rookie season and boy, does he look, well, like a baby.

Around the NBA:
Item 1:

Brown has felt the need to lobby for James more often this season. The Cavaliers feel their superstar does not get the preferential treatment awarded some of the game’s top players. [source]

How ridiculous is it that there are coaches and players out there that blatantly expect preferential treatment and publicly campaign for unfair officiating? Why even have refs at all then? Just let the players make their own calls. I get that LBJ (or fill in the blank here with another Stern honey) is a marquee player and yes, he’s one of the most exciting players to watch in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean that he should get calls on that sole basis.

It also does not sit well with me that a player that is already getting preferential calls day in and day out has the arrogance to complain about not getting a call on a rare occasion when a ref has the audacity to call a play in favor of the other team. Do these people have any idea what it’s like to be on a team (or a fan of a team) that 1) doesn’t have a Stern-pimpee and 2) is therefore unable to take the benefit of the whistle for granted? Or in one particular case dear to my heart, never hears the whistle unless it’s being blown against you while opponents are hacking the lifeblood out of you?

Item 2:

On Wednesday’s episode of General Hospital, [he] underwent an MRI. Another one…”(I’m) not even thinking about surgery right now,” [he] said. “I’m going to try to go through everything possible to try to avoid surgery.”…[He] is adamant the MRI shows he is hurt. He says he has regressed. “For everybody that thought I was just playing with some (imaginary) knee injury, my (injury) is real,” [he] said. “It’s big. It’s not just some pain. I have a real significant problem with my knee.” Yes, the pain is real. Real enough for him to seek out second and third opinions until he finds an answer. [source]